


Post Jail Breakout

by Winterling42



Series: I am also a We [11]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Sense8 (TV) Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25211653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: Caleb begins to see Nott more often than he really should...
Relationships: Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast
Series: I am also a We [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1427866
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	Post Jail Breakout

‘Nott’ became a regular fixture in ‘Caleb’s’ days. He would see her in line at a food bank, or catch sight of her slipping around a corner. Sometimes, he would look down, and there would be a wallet in his hand he hadn’t put there. Or a watch, or a compact. Once he found a laptop charger in his pocket--just the charger, not the laptop or any associated electronics. 

He never slept well, especially when low on blockers. Sleep was vulnerable, and practiced sensates knew how to travel through dreams. But nowadays he’d curl up in the shadow of a heating vent, or under a bridge, and she would be there, almost invisible under her oversized jacket. 

“Why are you doing this?” he whispered, huddled in the corner between a pillar and the wall. He would have to sleep sitting up, but his sides and back were protected. 

Nott rolled over, her face very close to his. The culvert she was sleeping in was not quite dry, the blanket they were wrapped in damp but warm. “Sorry,” she whispered back, her voice echoing strangely in the tunnel. “I’d stop, if I knew how.” 

There was an unexpected twist in his heart at the idea of her vanishing. Of no longer smiling when he felt something unusual in a pocket. He would miss the clever way she slipped through crowds, and the face she made when she caught him eating a jar of sauerkraut. 

“No, you do not have to do that,” he said, wrapping his arms more tightly around himself. Tucked his hands into the sleeves of his coat. “You don’t have to stop.” 

“Well, good,” Nott said, snuggling into her blanket. “I don’t exactly  _ mean _ to, you know.” 

“I know.” 

“You  _ do _ , though. Mean to.” He could feel her eyes on him, luminous in the white-blue of a distant street light. “I think you’re good at it. Whatever  _ it _ is.” 

“You are...not wrong.” Br--Caleb huffed out something that could’ve been a laugh. If you were being kind. “I used to be  _ very _ good.” 

“Still are,” she prompted, and he flinched. Couldn’t quite look at her. Because he’d been  _ so _ good at slipping inside the skins of other people, and you have to  _ know _ them to do that, you have to  _ love them _ to use them like that. And to put the gun to your own head (their head, oh they screamed) afterwards. 

“Sorry,” she whispered, again. And it was only instinct that made him shake his head, reach out to take her hand, thin and bony in his own. 

“It’s not you.” But he couldn’t say what it was, so he just stayed quiet. The silence grew between them, calm and rippling. She didn’t press him, and not just out loud. There was curiosity in her, but it wasn’t urgent, bound up behind her sleepiness and her own secrets. And with her facing him, leaning up against a wall and also curled up in a tunnel, he felt....safe would be too strong a word. But comforted, maybe, by the presence of another. 

There were a bottle of blockers in his pocket. But Caleb only shrugged the jacket higher on his shoulders and let his eyes slide shut. He would save them for the morning. 

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr at [critical-ramblings](https://www.critical-ramblings.tumblr.com)!


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